Various surgical procedures are routinely carried out intravascularly or intraluminally. For example, in the treatment of vascular disease, such as arteriosclerosis, it is a common practice to invade the artery and insert an instrument (e.g., a balloon or other type of catheter) to carry out a procedure within the artery. Such procedures usually involve the percutaneous puncture of the artery so that an insertion sheath can be placed in the artery and thereafter instruments (e.g., a catheter) can pass through the sheath and to an operative position within the artery. Intravascular and intraluminal procedures unavoidably present the problem of stopping the bleeding at the percutaneous puncture after the procedure has been completed and after the instruments (and any insertion sheaths used therewith) have been removed. Bleeding from puncture sites, particularly in the case of femoral arterial punctures, is typically stopped by utilizing vascular closure devices, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,179,963; 6,090,130; and 6,045,569 and related patents, which are hereby incorporated by this reference.
Typical closure devices such as the ones described in the above-mentioned patents place a sealing plug at the tissue puncture site. Nevertheless, the incision track leading to the invaded artery often continues to ooze blood from side vessels at the puncture site. Manual compression is typically applied at the puncture site to stop the track bleeding. Manual compression can lead to patient soreness and requires additional time from medical personnel. The time spent by medical personnel compressing the puncture site to stop the bleeding from the incision track can be expensive to the patient, and tiring to the medical personnel. Accordingly, there is a need for improving the sealing methods and apparatus at the site of subcutaneous tissue punctures.